Wimbledon juniors is underway. There are two very interesting first round matchups involving Americans: Blumberg vs. Shapovalov and Blanch vs. Ruud.

It's hard to predict how well Blumberg will do given how few matches he's played this year, but I think he's capable of winning the tournament. Unfortuately, Shapovalov is probably THE favorite to win the tournament, having won Roehampton last week. Tough draw for both players. I expect a tight match. If Blumberg prevails, the draw will open up for him. His serve gives him a puncher's chance on grass.

Blumberg finished 5th at the ITF Junior Masters, losing to Ruud in his opening match and following it up with wins over Luz and Lopez San Martin yesterday. He looked good yesterday. His serve is developing into a major weapon and I like how he consistently looked to attack second serves. He also looked stronger physically to me. It's incomprehensible that he lost 0 and 1 to Riffice last week.

Caruana just beat Oliver Crawford 6-0, 6-0 to reach the final of the G1 International Spring Championships. He hasn't dropped a set in the tournament. Italy might have a decent prospect on their hands. As I mentioned before, I saw some Bjorn Fratangelo in him when I watched him at the Aussie Open.

Caruana will play Sam Riffice, who beat William Blumberg by the shocking scoreline of 6-0. 6-1. Riffice has also not dropped a set in the tournament. Riffice needed a good tournament.

Ulises Blanch swept the singles and doubles titles at the Grade 1 Banana Bowl in Brazil. He beat Louis Wessels 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-6(6) in the final. Blanch has been on a very impressive run since mid-November. These are is results during that time:

The acceptance list for the Grade 1 International Spring Championships was released today. With the exception of Tiafoe, Kozlov, and Mmoh, just about every notable American born in 1998 or 1999 is on it, including William Blumberg. Of the younger kids, Sridhar and Fenty received direct entry. It's safe to assume that most of them will be playing the Easter Bowl as well.

Does anyone know what's going on with Will Blumberg? He hasn't played since the U.S. Open. He did accept an invitation to the ITF Junior Masters, which is held from April 8th to April 10th, but otherwise I haven't heard a peep about him.

I haven't heard anything about Roscoe Bellamy either, who's been out since early May.

The draw for the Orange Bowl is out. Rybakov's draw is pretty good. FAA, Tsitsipas, Valkusz, Shapovalov, and Olivieri are all in the opposite half. He could face Hossam (runner-up at the GA in Mexico two weeks ago) in the third round, Sigouin or Chung in the QF, and De Minaur, Ruud, or Kecmanovic in the SF. If he plays up to his ability, he's probably the favorite to get out of his quarter.

Ponwith has an extremely favorable draw for two rounds, but then would likely meet Valkusz in the third round and, should he get past him, FAA in the QF. Riffice, incidentally, could play FAA in the third round.

Blanch has a decent draw. I can see him getting past Ruud to reach another QF.

I'm not seeing much in the way of weapons, but his recent results are encouraging. It's too bad he had to retire against Nava in the round of 16 at Kalamazoo, as he had just beaten Henrik Wiersholm convincingly.

I look forward to him facing better competition. Hopefully he'll play the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl.

Between Blumberg, Ponwith, Blanch, Holt, Wolf, McNally, and Van Emburgh, I figure at least one of the 1998 kids outside of the Big Three will emerge as a good pro.